Gathering Dust

[adamfilip]

Its been weeks since i even turned on my printer. when I first got it, it took over every thought and dream I had.. I was so excited. there was never enough time in the day to mess around with it. but now 7 months later.. it sits there

I took a look through thingiverse but nothing really inspired me to print it.. im not feeling motivated to design anything to be printed on it..

whats wrong with me LOL.
this technology is awesome. so why arent i using it?

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Same thing happened to me, besides of course never having the time I used to. With that said I recommend picking a more complicated and larger project which may required dozens of 3D printed pieces. Might spark your interest again and make things interesting. It did for me.

[ZorAxe]

There are so many great print available on ThingiVerse. Here's a couple that interest me. As soon as my printer is finished being built I'm going to print these.

Perpetual motion on your desktop!
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:331609

One-Handed Bottle Opener (if you like beer
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:269463

3D Puzzle (for the mind freaks)
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10679

3D Printer Catapult
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:23051

[TopJimmyCooks]

I don't mind if I don't print something for a while. for me it's a tool. I don't use my tablesaw everyday or every week because it's not entertainment in and of itself, but I need the ability to rip boards on demand. I want it to be ready to go when I do want a part or a prototype or a demo/toy.

[MiniMadRyan]

I've found that I spend far more time designing and building printers than printing. That being said I've found I use my printer a lot more for 3dhubs orders and other jobs than I have for myself. I think they are amazing devices and would love to collect them all, but unless you're prototyping parts for a living,than for home use I can't think of many reasons to be usingusing it 365 days a year

In many ways a 3d printer is a tool to enable us to create with. Its the same as a table saw or a welder, invaluable when we need them, but not something we use every day around the house.

[adamfilip]

I have tried offering services on 3dhubs.. never get any interest on it.. care to share some advise on getting work?

[adamfilip]

I've found that I spend far more time designing and building printers than printing.

I feel the same way.. i want to make my own printer but.. since im not printing it seems like a wasted effort.
I can already hear the thoughts in my wifes head.. so you built another 3d printer..... you werent even using the first one!!! WTF lol

[MiniMadRyan]

Honestly, regarding 3DHubs, I've done nothing to promote it, or advertise it. I put a link on my website to it, but that's about it. I honestly haven't invested the time in my site that I should have, nor have I monitored the analytics of it, so I don't know where the traffic is coming from. I average about one order or inquiry a week, though I've taken my printer offline to fix some issues that I've been having. Lately, all of the printing I've been doing is frame components for my printers, which takes about 40 hours per set.

I really probably don't need another printer either. My 'only' justification for another printer, is that I would like to have a redundant large format printer that I can rely on when the other one goes down for maintenance (or for the times when I need 2 printers to cope with demand)

This is the current state of the latest design, it's a departure from all my other RepRap designs, aluminum frame, dual bulldog extruders, wireless printing, on board slicing, 7" touch screen controller, and a 14" x 12" x 11" build volume. Probably my last design for a while lol!

[ZorAxe]

Hmmm touch screen (maybe color) Is there open source firmware for that? Interesting idea

[MiniMadRyan]

Hmmm touch screen (maybe color) Is there open source firmware for that? Interesting idea

Goal is to have a 1024x600 colour touch screen powered by a Raspberry Pi 2 (or Beaglebone) acting as basically a host PC. Maybe OctoPrint with Cura or something similar on board. The printer electronics are a Smoothieboard 5X. Of course there are some great options utilizing Smoothieware too. Also looking into some additional ideas such as jam detection, out-of-filament detection, and even a smoke detection for when things go seriously wrong, but not sure how many of these I will implement right away...